Louisiana Republicans advances map that could wipe out a majority-Black congressional district

The new map advanced after a recent Supreme Court ruling reopened battles over redistricting and the Voting Rights Act.

Louisiana Republicans are moving fast. The state Senate advanced a new congressional map early Wednesday that would reduce the state’s Democratic House seats from two to one, eliminating one of its two majority-Black districts in the process.

As theGrio previously reported, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry moved to suspend the state’s primary elections within a day of the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, targeting both of the state’s Black Democratic congressmen, and Black legislators across the South have been leading a resistance effort as Republican-controlled legislatures rush to pass new maps before the midterms. NBC News reported that the Louisiana redistricting Black district proposal would push the state’s congressional delegation from a 4-2 Republican advantage to 5-1.

The new map preserves a single majority-Black district anchored around New Orleans, largely protecting the seat held by Democratic Rep. Troy Carter. But it extends into Baton Rouge, where Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields currently represents a district, potentially setting up a member-versus-member primary between the two Black Democrats. The Louisiana redistricting Black district proposal effectively forces them into the same lane.

Republicans rejected a plan that would have preserved both Democratic seats and chose not to consider a proposal that would have eliminated both. The map still requires a full Senate vote and approval from the state House.

The district fight is the direct result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state’s previous map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and significantly raised the bar for how future Voting Rights Act claims must be proven. The ruling opened the door for Southern states to quickly redraw maps before the midterms in ways that could eliminate majority-Black seats. This would be the third set of congressional maps Louisiana has drawn since the last census.

Fields addressed the stakes bluntly in remarks after the ruling. “If you tell me that I got to jump a certain height, I could probably do that. Tell me I got to run a certain distance, I could probably do that too. But if you tell me I have to be white to serve in Congress from Louisiana, I can’t do nothing about that.”